Since I am in Germany, I will choose a book that can certainly be found in "Deutsch": "Human, All Too Human" by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was not only an astounding philosopher, he was also a brilliant writer - his oeuvre abounds with formal innovations and bold flights of expression. While Nietzsche’s philosophy is always highly personal, Human, All Too Human stands apart from his other books in how it reveals a wounded, self-questioning man behind the shocking and world-historical thought.

Nietzsche wrote the book after his friendship with Richard Wagner ended traumatically. In it, he puts into practice his doctrine of self-overcoming: Nietzsche breaks free of the romanticism of his youth through sober, often painful rationalism. In his pursuit of truth - including the truth about whether or not it is ultimately good to pursue the truth - the artist-philosopher swallows one bitter pill after another. Writing about subjects such as religion, the soul of the artist, and ‘man alone with himself’, Nietzsche illumines uncharted terrains of thought with the lightning flash of his aphoristic style. Never before had a profound philosophical work found expression with such personal feeling and artistic grace. Consider this lovely aphorism which, in its condensed blend of travelogue, personal reflection, lyricism, and philosophical heft, feels about a century ahead of its time:

"Seriousness in play. At sunset in Genoa, I heard from a tower a long chiming of bells: it kept on and on, and over the noise of the backstreets, as if insatiable for itself, it rang out into the evening sky and the sea air, so terrible and so childish at the same time, so melancholy. Then I thought of Plato's words and felt them suddenly in my heart: all in all, nothing human is worth taking very seriously; nevertheless..."